Usually, writing a newspaper feature or profile, you lead with some clever prose or a snappy quote to get the folks' attention. Sometimes, simple facts are powerful enough:

Jay Leno wraps up 17 years on The Tonight Show from his Burbank, Calif., studio late tomorrow afternoon. Saturday night, he performs at the Borgata in Atlantic City.

Jay, that's just plain insane.

"I think you're wrong," he says on the phone from Burbank. "Most people who are comedians - Seinfeld, Bob Hope - they perform, and they're on the road the next day. Bob Hope had gigs up until his last breath. Actors, maybe they take breaks. Most comics I know, work. I've worked every weekend for the past 17 years."

But, dude, you've just finished history's second-longest run as custodian of one of the monuments of American culture. Don't you want to celebrate a little (at least he has planned a party Friday evening), maybe relax for a week or two and contemplate what you've done?

"Whew!" he says. "Yeah, and then I could shoot myself in the head."

This constant motion, this insatiable desire for approval from masses of anonymous fans - it does drive certain entertainers. Are they afraid some inner beast might catch them? Are they afraid some outer force will pierce their armor?

Leno sure doesn't want to talk about that stuff, and he doesn't have to. Like Bob Hope before him, he has a huge file of self-deprecating jokes and anecdotes in his head that he uses to answer interviewers, seemingly personally and attentively, graciously providing fine copy without revealing very much.

You want to talk to Dave Letterman? Uh, good luck. He's a recluse up there on his Westchester County estate, or holed up out in Montana. Jay? Sure! He's always playing somewhere, glad to plug the show, make the promoters happy, give the fans something to anticipate.

Two days after speaking to me, he had a conference call with lots of critics. Several of the same tales spilled out, often in the same words, including the time he tried to relax on the beach in Hawaii the morning after a performance. Fifteen minutes felt like five hours. "I was on the plane by noon," he told me, and then the critics.

"I'm a great believer in low self-esteem," he told me and then the critics. "The only people I find that have high self-esteem are criminals and actors. And if you have low self-esteem, and you always assume you're the dumbest person in the room, you'll work harder, try a little bit more, and you'll be OK."

Racing around, living small, Jay Leno is OK.

"I watch show business from afar," Leno says. "I live the same life I lived 29 years ago."

What about the scores of exotic and antique cars he keeps in a warehouse near the studio? "I only drive one at a time."

"Show biz is great fun," says Leno, "but you don't fall in love with the hooker. I don't spend show business money, and I try to lead a normal life."

It's normal if working every day - and, back in the '80s, before he started using private jets, being the No. 1 frequent flyer on United Airlines - is normal.

"I've never touched a dime of my TV money, ever," he says. "My passbook? Oh, that's pretty good."

He probably does have it all in a passbook, about $175 million, not counting interest, if Forbes magazine's salary estimates are correct.

But Leno doesn't want to talk about that, either.

He'll say a few things about his one-hour, 10 p.m. weeknight show, starting in the fall on NBC, but says he really hasn't thought about it much.

"If I start working on the new show on Monday, we'll just barely get in under the wire." It will be different from The Tonight Show, he says, but will probably have a guest most nights, and the big problem will be keeping up the comedy in the second half so people stay on for the local news.

He does acknowledge renting jets because commercial air travel has gone to the dogs, and he laments that he can claim only about $500 - the cost of an airline ticket - for his trip to A.C. on his income taxes.

"I love Atlantic City. It's like going to my cousin's wedding," Leno says. "There's a lot of Italians and a lot of Jewish people, a different crowd than you get in Los Angeles. I grew up with those kinds of people."

He loves it, but he's not putting down roots. "I leave here about 9 a.m., get in there around 6:30, go on at 8, and I'm back here about 4 a.m. That's how you stay married. You come home every night.

"Plus, and I know you'll find this hilarious, I have a gig in Los Angeles Sunday night. I've worked at the Comedy & Magic Club every Sunday for 30 years.

"That's where I try out my new jokes."

Jonathan Storm:

Stand-up comedy

Jay Leno

8 p.m. Saturday at Event Center at the Borgata. Tickets: $85-$65. Information: 609-317-1000 or theborgata.com.

Contact television critic Jonathan Storm at 215-854-5618 or jstorm@phillynews.com. Read his recent work at http://go.philly.com/jonathanstorm.